Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 22:09     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:Some E Schools will let an ugrad have 5 years to complete their degree. That might be a good option for some students.

At my university, engineers needed a minimum of 135-140 credit hours to graduate, varying with the degree (e.g., Aero was 140, civil was 135), but all other (non-engineering) majors only needed 120 credit hours. So at that university engineering courses both were harder AND engineering students needed to cram 9-9.5 semesters of work into 8 semesters.


Princeton was kind of like that. No credit hours but you had to take 5 courses for 4 of the 8 semesters. BA just took 4 courses every semesters. And of course freshman year you had 2 lab courses (about 3 hours of labs) per semester unless you AP out of it and got to skip those lab hours.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 21:59     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:Leave him be. Hang in there, kid!

No! Don't leave him be! Guide him to get academic support from his school. Dean of Students or Academic Affairs. Have him talk to his advisor. If he needs accommodations for testing, get it. If he needs more time for assignments, get it. If he needs a tutor, get it. All of this is available for college kids. Please, please do not let him quit on this. There are plenty of options for support.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 19:39     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DS is a sophomore at an elite Ivy, and he is majoring in engineering field.

We live far from DC in a small town in VA, having moved here so I could SAH, the high school seemed well enough, but didn’t have any AP courses or such, and only about a 1/3 of kids go to college (most go to Old Dominion, JMU, etc).

I was talking to DS about declaring his major, and he got a B- in chem, C+ in calc, and C- in physics first semester, and then B+ in chem, A- multivar calc, and C+ in physics second semester. His best grade was an A- in a civil liberties course.

He claims he doesn’t care about grades, he is committed to engineering and even wants to go grad school!

I know the Ivy name might help, and maybe they have some grade deflation, but I think most people would take these kind of grades as a sign to switch to a humanities major, esp with the grade in Civil Liberties. This semester he seems on track for Bs and Cs still.

Will he be employable with these kind of grades? I assume grad school won’t accept him, so just care if he can lead to work. Did anyone stick it out in a hard major even with bad grades?


He will never make it thru engineering program if he is struggling with those intro courses.

- engineer


+1

If OP's kid is at MIT, that is one thing - quite another at a state school.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 19:31     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:DS is a sophomore at an elite Ivy, and he is majoring in engineering field.

We live far from DC in a small town in VA, having moved here so I could SAH, the high school seemed well enough, but didn’t have any AP courses or such, and only about a 1/3 of kids go to college (most go to Old Dominion, JMU, etc).

I was talking to DS about declaring his major, and he got a B- in chem, C+ in calc, and C- in physics first semester, and then B+ in chem, A- multivar calc, and C+ in physics second semester. His best grade was an A- in a civil liberties course.

He claims he doesn’t care about grades, he is committed to engineering and even wants to go grad school!

I know the Ivy name might help, and maybe they have some grade deflation, but I think most people would take these kind of grades as a sign to switch to a humanities major, esp with the grade in Civil Liberties. This semester he seems on track for Bs and Cs still.

Will he be employable with these kind of grades? I assume grad school won’t accept him, so just care if he can lead to work. Did anyone stick it out in a hard major even with bad grades?


He will never make it thru engineering program if he is struggling with those intro courses.

- engineer
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 19:28     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Some E Schools will let an ugrad have 5 years to complete their degree. That might be a good option for some students.

At my university, engineers needed a minimum of 135-140 credit hours to graduate, varying with the degree (e.g., Aero was 140, civil was 135), but all other (non-engineering) majors only needed 120 credit hours. So at that university engineering courses both were harder AND engineering students needed to cram 9-9.5 semesters of work into 8 semesters.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 19:17     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Engineering is just hard, for any student, any at school. No one accidentally gets a BS Engineering degree. Often, the Engineering schools curve to a B-/C+ while the arts & letters degrees at the same university curve to a B/B+. Less grade inflation in engineering usually.

I had less than perfect grades as an Engineering undergrad, worked for a couple of years and then started my graduate degree. It all has worked out fine. And after starting work, no one cared about my grades, only that I could get work done correctly and on time.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 18:42     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
My kid is in engineering at Cornell. It’s insanely hard. I’ve often heard that the average gpa is a 2.7, and “c’s get degrees”. They were doing a practice prelim from a previous semester and the exam instructions included advice that if you start to panic, try a breathing exercise. Engineering is also chock full of kids from elite boarding schools and privates. Honestly, I’m impressed your kid is hanging in there coming from a public with no APs. Follow your kid’s lead, support them, and remind them frequently how proud you are of them. They are amazing and doing something incredibly hard!
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 18:37     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:if he can't keep a 3.0 or better, he will have trouble finding a good job. many employers have a minimum GPA for interviews.


Not in engineering. Many employers don't have a minimum GPA and understand that the course work is hard and the grades aren't inflated. Get a job there and then move on to more competitive jobs once you've got some experience.


This X 1000

He isn’t in finance, law or trying to get not med school. As long as he gets some internship or work experience before he graduates he’ll do great.

Think of it like this. A politician doesn’t need 90% of the vote , he only needs 51%.


+1 on this.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 18:35     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:Those grades seem pretty bad to me but he should talk to his advisor and career office to see what they think. They’re the experts.


They're not in engineering.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 18:34     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Don’t be an idiot. Don’t discourage him from pursuing engineering


He wants to build airplanes — this isn’t Big Tech money, and will they let C students work on planes??


Hahahaha yes.

- aero engineer and A&P mechanic
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 18:21     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
OP, he's doing fine-enough.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 17:47     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Don’t encourage him to quit. We need more highly educated engineers. He’s on an upwards trajectory. Be sure to encourage internships as that will lead to jobs.

There’s a lot of weeding out in Chem and Calc to reduce the number of premed applicants. If he’s not planning on med school, Bs and Cs in engineering the first year will be okay.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 16:04     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:if he can't keep a 3.0 or better, he will have trouble finding a good job. many employers have a minimum GPA for interviews.


Hi my kid is in engineering at an elite college. it is hard. but kid is chugging along. going to classes, taking exams. we are not bugging about grades. i am sure some are low Bs and less. but said they 'like the engineering electives so much!" we are going and cheering along the ride.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 15:19     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ivy league schools have grade deflation?

Huh?

No deflation, but less inflation. Princeton is known for having the lowest GPA of the Ivys, followed by Cornell. And it would be unsurprising for engineering to have the lowest GPA of the different majors.


But Ivy schools have grade inflation compared to most public schools. The average GPA at Harvard is > 3.7. Some of this I'm sure is due to the quality of the students compared to most schools.


https://features.thecrimson.com/2020/senior-survey/academics/

Data from the 2020 class; the most common UG GPA (rounded to 1 decimal place) is a 3.9. 24% of the student body has that. 73% have a 3.7 or above.
Anonymous
Post 10/24/2023 15:14     Subject: Dropping out of engineering
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Ivy league schools have grade deflation?

Huh?

No deflation, but less inflation. Princeton is known for having the lowest GPA of the Ivys, followed by Cornell. And it would be unsurprising for engineering to have the lowest GPA of the different majors.


But Ivy schools have grade inflation compared to most public schools. The average GPA at Harvard is > 3.7. Some of this I'm sure is due to the quality of the students compared to most schools.